The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-17
WOMAN AND HOME.
TACT AND GOODNESS REQUIRED TO
MANAGE A HOUSEHOLD.
Dulled and Warped Spirits-simple Life
Best for Children-Cheerful Homes.
Names of women-Headache-
sique-A Senator'S Wife.

Best for Children-Cheerful Homes.
Names of Observation-Disclosures
sique-A Senator's Wife.
The affairs of the household are seldom
very simple affairs; as much tact and cool
ness il needs to manage a great business,
with books and clerks and customers, Is
often required to keep the system ttic work
ing of things in the family, and accommo-
date that to all the Interruptions and inter
ferences that daily life is sure to bring; TO
keep the differing tempers of the persons
composing the household in any degree har-
monious; To stand between master and cook
and remain uncrushed between cook and
housemaid and retain both in service; to
have sickness in the house and a nuxse, and
retain anybody; TO do ones own work and
be ready with smiles and cheer and decent
front on occasion for company.
The UMPIRE JUDGED observer might well ask
what manner of woman is it that a man has
married when he has so poor an opinion of
her that he does not believe she would feel
his interests as keenly as he himself feels
them, does not perceive that their interests
mutual and that they working to
the same end; does not want to save a dollar
for the common good much as he does,
and is not willing to work as hard and go
without much in her own way. The
prejudicecl observer might also ask if the
husband, who is so close with his purse, con
sidering it his and not the family purse, is
actuated by no meaner motive than distrust;
ii his own outside and purely selfish pleas
ures would not he interfered with i'll the alb
straction of funds il the wife were allowed
To spend she pleased. She has cigars
to buy, no drinks to take no billiards to
play, no expenses beyond those Of her own
and the children's apparel, according To her
idea of propriety; and What Is really a triie
in the way of his own expenditure is a vast
sum of money to her.
Women do not expect a great deal, speak
ing of them in the mass, and not of the scat
tered few who are the children of luxury.
We have known n wife TO burst into tears Of
joy at being given S25 To prepare her family
of four with clothing for the summer, going
without anything new herself; have
known one to take the money given her by
a brother for u needed article of clothing,
and to buy with it a barrel of flour rather
than. tell her husband the -four had come to
an end and we have known another to cut
up every gown but one that she had in order
To keep her girls fit for school, while the hus-
band appeared to know nothing of what was
going ON, and she sat in the chimney corner,
never going out by day, growing old before
her time, knowing and seeing almost moth
ing of the world through the want Of decent
apparel And il these are isolated instances
of their kind it is only because most husbands
are not really mean, although they may have
To be asked for what is wanted, and then
may give it as II gift, considering themselves
generous, while the wives feel that they have
"a right To the necessares of life if no more,
and that it should be theirs without asking.
But in the most frequent cases there is no
expressed community of interest, no saying
or implying that there is just SO much avail
able income, and how can it best be used;
but in the majority of instances if the wife
wants an article of any sort to wear she has
to appeal to him. giving him IA statement of
her wishes and reasons, and convincing him
of the necessity of it; she has to do the same
II it is only a pair of new boots; and at the
thought of a new bonnet she has to dread
hearing homily on female vanity and the
idleness of fashions, while she would be sur
prised at herself if she had IA 80 cent piece i'm
her pocket with which to answer IA call of
charity or buy spool of silk. Nothing
could have been devised to make her more
surely feel her inferiority or to teach it to
the children who see money doed out to her
as it is doed out to them. If, under such
circumstances, the wife supplies herself with
small change i'll n surreptitiOus way, tlching
from his pockets IA dime or II nickel at time
till she can, at any rate take ride in the
street ear without asking, and if by means
of that it happens that his children are the
children of thief and are perhaps born
kleptomaniacs he has himself to thank for
the baseness that has been achieved-himself
and his habit of making the handling of
money the criterion of sense and authority.
-Harper's Bazaar.